This article...I couldn't really stand to read much because it didn't really seem to be talking about anything. I read about Vaan and...he's not a fashionista, he doesn't need hair spray....what's the point of making stuff up? If you're trying to make a case for them, why not use their ACTUAL story to show how they're effective...but maybe I missed it as I skimmed...

I love my Final Fantasy pretty boys. I really do. Squall Leonhart was what got me into JRPGs and especially the Final Fantasy series in general. But that doesn't mean I don't also think Kratos or other macho male characters aren't cool or interesting or attractive. I don't understand all the femmeboy hate.

You know what, how about we get a little of every category? We can have our Vaans, our Nathan Drakes, and our Kratoses.

When they first started to have females in action games there was a slew of comments like "I bet she will stop and moan when she breaks a nail!" Somewhat misogynistic I know, but I can't help but think things like that when looking at some of the male leads in games today.

For me, the hero should be more concerned about the Bug Bad Evil rather than his stockpile of hair gel.

Yes, but you see, your article is inherently flawed: It's based on one of the worst games in the world. Vaan is an inept toad, constantly overshadowed by other more interesting and complex (but still somehow shallow) characters like the guy with the evil twin or the airship pirate (it's been a long time since I played it). Hell, he's overshadowed by his childhood friend and she's basically a really dumb brick in terms of personality.

If you watch enough popular media from Japan, you will eventually come across a horrible stereotype of a big, burly and very gay Japanese muscleman. I have no idea whether the stereotype has a basis in reality on any level, but I would say that it has probably got something to do with Japanese women preferring dudes with an effeminate and girlish appearance.

A man who bucks the accepted wisdom by deliberately building muscle mass in such a society probably opens themselves up to all sorts of innuendo.

Actually, I read somewhere that in Japan, men who are pretty are considered to be masculine. Would anyone happen to know if this is true? Furthermore, I personally find the "pretty boy" archetype refreshing after seeing so many "macho men" in gaming. However, I would prefer there to be a happy medium on the subject; I don't think we need to go to either extreme in order to have a good game.

Alright, I'm gonna be honest here ... Every single Exploding Barrel I've read over the past month seems to escape me, point-wise. It always reads like a cluster of thoughts, scrambled together, rather than an article or a column. No point, no discussion value - except for "I've presented one way to look at it, now talk about it!" - nothing.

One one side we have men who command entire armies... of hairdressers to tend to their hair.

On the other whe have men who saying that they have the emotional range of a spoon would be insulting to spoons.

You say emotional range like it's a good thing.

Anyway: This series seems to be justifications and reconstructions of tropes used in video games that frequently get complained about, but their absence would do more harm than good. More specifically, it gives "rule-of-thumb" justifications of things that tend not to make sense in the narrative context of games but are important to actual gameplay (Such as the eponymous Exploding Barrels) or, in this case, desired art direction.